


Nothing Left That Won't Cross Over

by kerithwyn



Series: Beyond the Fringe: Tales from the Kinkmeme [3]
Category: Fringe
Genre: Fringe Kink Meme, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-04
Updated: 2011-11-04
Packaged: 2017-10-25 17:10:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerithwyn/pseuds/kerithwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie's at odds and ends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Left That Won't Cross Over

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to samjohnsson for beta above and beyond the call.
> 
> Written for the [Fringe kinkmeme](http://fringe-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/) using the following prompt:
> 
> Red!Charlie/Blue!Lincoln
> 
> Danger, this timeline variant could not be parsed with a microscope.

Right, so.

Charlie Francis is, as he always proclaims, a simple guy. He likes booze, broads, and baseball. He also likes his partners a lot, especially when they manage to survive another Fringe case and he and Liv and Lincoln end up in Lincoln's apartment, fucking like minks.

But then all that crap happened with the alternate universe and Liv's mission there, and she came back pregnant. Somehow that was Lincoln's trigger to confess that he loved her (which, no shit), so now he and Liv are shacked up, baby makes three. Charlie's glad for the kids, really, but he's feeling a little left out in the cold and a little too old to start doing the bar circuit again. It's a sure thing with his badge, yeah, but he's gotten used to bedding down with people he trusts with his life, and there's no stand-in for that.

And Mona, she's okay and all but she's really more interested in his bugs than *him* and frankly, that's a little creepy. So he's at odds and ends when the bridge opens and suddenly there's a permanent link to the other universe. He's curious, they all are, and after a couple of weeks it's almost become routine for the two Fringe Divisions to trade materials and people through the portals.

He's learned a lot about the other side, through files and Liv's accounts, by the time he goes over. Charlie knows that the other-Charlie was married to a woman named Sonia (he's wracked his brain, but he can't remember meeting a Sonia) and that he was killed by a shapeshifter. The other Olivia Dunham put it down and Charlie finds himself weirdly grateful to her for that; he imagines the other Charlie (if he'd had a chance to say so) would have been proud of Olivia for taking down his killer.

The pronouns are going to kill him with this shit, seriously.

The other side is kind of a magical fairytale wonderland, for the coffee if nothing else. Olivia is...Olivia is interesting, the way she is and isn't like Charlie's Olivia. He likes talking to her and she seems to feel the same. Charlie imagines that if he could find the double of his first partner, he might like that too. But he's got no intention of seeking the guy out, or the wife of his own alternate either. Things are complicated enough without bringing more civilians in on this mess.

Olivia's hooked up with that Peter guy, the one who's really Secretary Bishop's son and the father of Liv's kid, and there is no way Charlie's getting anywhere near *that* twisted situation, even if Olivia was interested in a tumble. She doesn't seem to be, the way she looks at him like her old friend, and that's just fine with Charlie. Liv would have his balls if he tried anything, anyway.

But then there's Lincoln Lee mark 2, the Nerd Strikes Back. Charlie's first impression is...not complimentary, and he's pretty sure that shows. He's used to a Lincoln who's snarky, charming, slick, and a little (a lot) kinky. He can't speak to the last with this guy, but everything else--the measured conversation, the deliberate scrutiny, the *glasses*--makes him think something went screwy in translation somewhere.

Still, Charlie's not too choosy to drink with him when Lincoln 2 invites him out for a beer. He's the odd guy out in this lab, Charlie has noticed, between the Peter-Olivia and Walter-Astrid coalitions. (And *that* was a shock, how adorable this Astrid is, but Charlie doesn't know anything about her and she seems to keep whatever private life she has, well, private.) Lincoln 2 also likes baseball, so it's a pleasant evening bullshitting about teams that do and don't exist between worlds until Glasses leans over and says, quietly, "I heard from Olivia about your... _relationship_ with your partners, over there."

There's enough emphasis on the word so there's no mistaking the implication, but it's not a question either, so Charlie just takes another swallow of his beer before he says, "Yeah, and?"

"And." Lincoln 2--okay, fine, *Lincoln*--runs his finger through the wet rings on the table between them, his eyes steady on Charlie's. "I was curious."

There's no mistaking *that* implication, either. Charlie swallows again, this time around the sudden dryness in this throat. "Figure you want to get in your interdimensional ya-yas while you can?"

Lincoln throws back his head and laughs, loud and long, while Charlie watches the pulse in his throat and yeah, he wants to lick it. This isn't the guy he's fought vortexes and mutant bugs with but he's awfully damn close to the real thing. Closer than Charlie had thought, on first impression. This Lincoln's sense of humor is drier, even sharper in a way, but his eyes are just as blue.

And unlike Liv, Charlie's Lincoln would appreciate a detailed account of his alternate's...everything.

"Well," Lincoln says, still chuckling, "if you put it that way. Yes."

"I got lots of ways to put it," Charlie leers, going for crude as a check on this guy's intention to follow through, but Lincoln laughs again and gets up, grabbing his coat.

"I'd ask if you were coming, but...."

Charlie finally gives in and laughs too, reaching for his own coat. "Soon, I hope. Lead on."

As it turns out, this Lincoln is plenty kinky too.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from BNL's "Alternative Girlfriend" and I freely admit I cracked myself up with the irony of that.


End file.
